What's up?

Sorry I have been AWOL. Everything is fine here. We have been having fun, playing outside in the water a lot. The other day, I spent a couple of hours outside in the scorching morning heat cleaning up some flower beds while the boys played in the hose. Every once in a while I had to asked them to spray me because, otherwise, I would not have been able to stay out as long. It has been very very hot here...around the 100 to 103 ish mark and that does not include the heat index, meaning it does not factor in the humidity to tell you what it really feels like (this is like factoring in the wind chill factor in the winter).

We finally got a break this morning and we had a cool front come through so it only got into the low 90's today but there was much less humidity so it really felt much cooler.

Anyway, not much new going on around here. Just staying busy with summer and trying to catch up on a few things and I was also reading a book so that took me a way for a couple of days. My sister gave the boys some books for when they are a bit older so I was putting them away yesterday morning and started reading The Swiss Family Robinson to see if it was too old for them (it was). Anyway, I got interested in it because I had never read it before. I was already planning to make my weekly jaunt to the library for the boys anyway so I also found the adult version of The Swiss Family Robinson while I was there. I finished it today. What a wonderful book that was! It was written in such a sweet way that it just made me want to be part of that wonderful family, stranded on that beautiful island with them:). I really enjoyed it and was not quite ready to be finished with it. This is one of the things I love about having children. I get to read all of the books that I missed when I was growing up.

I have been trying to find one of Ron Paul's books because I wanted to read more about his beliefs and for what he fights when in congress. I have not written much about politics lately but I have still been watching and reading and, suffice it to say (for now) that I am not happy with how things are going AT ALL. (surprise surprise:).

N has caught a summer cold and I am wondering if anyone else is going to catch it. He still keeps going like the energizer bunny, although I can tell he is not quite as agreeable at times. He has once again developed the bad habit of telling his father and mother "no!" or "no! I won't!" when we tell him to do something. This had been going on for a while now and it was really starting to get to me. The dad and I were not handling it with one consequence consistently and I could tell it was getting worse. The dad and I discussed this yesterday and then discussed it with N to let him know what the consistent consequence will be for this moving forward. Today every time this happened, the dad just happened to be in charge, so he handled the consequences. Tomorrow will be back to mom and boys since the dad will be back to work so I will be in charge of consequences....bummer, I really liked the dad being in charge of this stuff today. It was a nice break:). Hopefully N will have better control tomorrow and we will not hear this much. The last time we really cracked down on it, it did not take long to disappear, so I am hopeful. This child sure does need consistency and diligence (so does the mom:).

Anyway, that's it for tonight. Hope you had a good weekend.

Picture Saturday!!

I decided to use my old computer, as difficult as it is, to get caught up on some pics. This computer is a real pain though because it keeps switching over to battery and the battery goes dead very fast. I keep having to yank on the cord to make it switch back to AC power. It definitely has a short somewhere. Anyway, here are some pictures.

First, some updated close ups of the boys. Haven't they changed? They are both little brownies from spending so much time outside.
Here is N, helping to put away the silverware.
And then, working a puzzle. He normally wakes up before B, hence the P.J.'s pics.

Here is a picture of both of our cats looking out of the window at a little rabbit. You can see the rabbit too, although you may have to click on the picture to enlarge it.
We finally painted our paper mache art work.
Here is B on the top of the jungle gym, getting ready to jump down and N is getting ready to climb up.
B is dropping to the ground.
Now N is dropping to the ground.
B climbing up the outside and N climbing the inside.
A photo op break.
They were in a silly mood.
Climbing up together.
B is trying to learn how N flips over backward as he jumps down.
Here he goes. He was too fast and I didn't catch the landing.
Both boys hanging from the inside.
And trying to climb up to flip over.
N hanging. B already landed on the ground.
B climbing up to do a flip.
Heals over head and away we go. They are too fast for me. I didn't catch the next step.
Putting the ball into the spray thingy.
It is really neat to see how the ball stays on the water so long.
Still going up. It stays there for the longest time.
Boys in pool doing lots of pouring.
Photo op break.
I think B was pretending to eat something.
This is what the pool looked like today.

Playing baseball with dad. N hit the ball.
And B hit the ball.Here is the follow through.
Dad had just finished some yard work. We have a lefty and a righty.
Hope you enjoyed picture Saturday! Happy Father's Day!

Happy Friday!

The boys and I have had a big day today. We left the house this morning around 10:00ish to go mail Father's day cards to Papa. I'm bummed that I forgot about that until today, as I had purchased the cards last week. Oh well. We can still call him on Sunday.

Next on the list was a trip to Ulta to purchase some Paul Mitchell hair spray. My husband found a better deal on the Internet last month and purchased a gallon of it for me. It was not cheap and with shipping, the total cost was over $60. It never arrived. I sent them an email and, so far, we have not heard anything back. Not sure what to do about that. But I completely ran out today and I really need it in order for my hair to look decent so I bought another big bottle.

After that, I really didn't have any big plans but had been wanting to look around in my favorite teacher's store, The Apple Tree, so we headed in that direction. We looked at everything and the boys got to play with a few toys they had out, which was great because it gave me some ideas for birthday gifts in the fall. They each picked out a puzzle and it took them a long time to make up their minds.

Then we decided to go out to eat for lunch at Chick-fil-a. We had a good lunch and they got to play and they each got a balloon, which is always a big hit around here. (When do kids outgrow balloon's? Just curious.)

Then we went by the pottery painting place to see if our Father's gifts were ready and they were so we got to pick them up and they came out great. B and N each painted a small plate. I painted the background around the edges so that there would be color all over the plate and then they went to town and painted other colors all over the plate. When they were done painting we put their hand print in the middle of the plate. I also used the paints that are raised up (not sure what they are called) and painted Happy Father's Day around the top of the plate and 2009 around the bottom of the plate and then I wrote each child's name next to his hand print. I thought they really came out wonderful. I wrapped them in a box but had not had a chance to hide it before the dad got home from work and the boys were so excited to help him open it that they went ahead and opened it right away. The dad was very happy with his gifts and thought they were very well done, so that was nice.

We didn't make it back home in time to take naps and, wow, what a mistake that was (think crying and whining about every little thing). Suffice it to say that things were not very pleasant around here this evening and the boys went to bed early.

I have to share this because I think it is pretty amazing. This morning, I was reading the next steps in the book I am following (loosely) on teaching the boys to read. The next step was writing small words on index cards so I did some of them and showed them to B, since he has been working on his blending of letter sounds and seems to be catching on quickly. That kid amazes me. He makes it look so easy. If he was my only child, I might think I am a pretty good teacher:). But since he is not, I know that he is just an amazing kid when it comes to picking up reading easily. These are the words I showed him and he sounded each one out, one time, and then said the word: am, an, at, ad, rat, mat, hat, cat, pat, fat, sat, bat. These are the only ones I had written out so far and he didn't miss any of them. When he finished, he said he was tired of this and he got down to go play. (For those of you who don't know already, he is 3.75 years old; he will be 4 years old at the end of September.)

N is funny. He was up first and was sitting next to me at the counter finishing his breakfast when I was writing the words on the index cards. I started going over a few of the two letter words with him but he was not very interested. He gave a half-hearted effort on one or two and that was about it. But then, when I was going over them with B and B was getting positive feedback, N was all "Me too; I want to do it!". He made an effort to sound out one word and then he was happy and went on about his business. He has picked up a lot purely from wanting to keep up with B or to be included in whatever B might be doing.

When we are learning phonics or numbers, we do things in very short spurts but they sure pick up a lot in a short amount of time. I have never pushed them. I will introduce something, a new game or something, or ask them if they want to do such-and-such. If they respond positively, we do it until they are done and then we move on. We really have done very little over the past month or two, although they still play with their Leap Frog word maker toy, which is an awesome toy. They have learned a lot from this toy and also from the Leap Frog Word DVD (can't remember the exact name) and the little "computers" that we have. They call them computers but they are just average toys that teach letters, letter sounds and spelling.

Another neat thing that I noticed just the other day is that both boys can now count to 20 without skipping numbers. Also, they can count that many items, which I think is pretty good. This morning they both wanted to do some dot-to-dot books. N had the alphabet one and B had the numbers one and they were both doing them very well. I was impressed. Clearly they are both very bright little boys... and they are growing up so fast. It really blows my mind.

N is still a very coordinated, athletic little guy. I think I might have already said this but he was swinging from one arm, while hanging from the jungle gym thing the other day. I was so surprised.

At some point I will have to move from this playtime, whenever-you-want-to-do-it kind of school to we must now sit down for a certain amount of time every day and do this, even if you don't enjoy every single bit of what we do kind of school. I don't really have a good picture in my mind of how to make that transition but I'm sure it will come.

Gotta go. Hope you had a Happy Friday!
P.S. Karen, I enjoy your comments and hearing what you are up to. Thanks for keeping in touch. If you make it back here for a visit sometime, we really must get together.

Boys Update and Chapter 9

Per critical acclaim, I will be providing short updates on the boys before the chapter updates:).

Today we hung out at home all day. I love days like that, especially after we have had a few days running around. I worked on planting a crepe myrtle (flowering bush) in a tough spot, while the boys played, riding their bikes and scooters on the drive way, pulling each other in their wagon and riding their little cars...oh, and also sweeping. It was still relatively cool outside and they were having fun.

My bush did not fit quite right where I planted it so I have to rework it either tomorrow or on the weekend. It is at the corner of the house, along the driveway, where two beds meet. The bed in front of the house meets up with the bed that runs along the driveway and they are at two different heights. The front bed is higher than the one along the driveway so there is a bit of a steep slope from the edge of the front bed down to the driveway on the side of the house. I would post a picture but I can't:). Another thing I hope to fix sometime soon, maybe this weekend.

Anyway, I was just finishing up, with the realization that I would have to start over another day (it was getting hot fast), when our friends showed up to play. We had planned a play date but they had canceled because my friend, who is pregnant, was not feeling up to par. They ended up deciding to come over after all and couldn't reach us so they drove over to see if we were outside. (They only live one mile away.) We were outside and happy to have company. I was covered in dirt, mud and sweat however, we are the kind of friends that such things just don't matter:). My friend and I enjoyed visiting and the kids all had a great time playing.

After they left, it was time for lunch and naps and then more playtime outside and dinner. Nothing too unusual, except that I didn't have the grill turn up high enough and, when we sat down to eat dinner, we quickly realized the chicken was not done enough:(. Bummer. The dad put the chicken back on the grill and we at a bunch of veggies while we waited for it to cook a bit longer.

Otherwise, not much new going on around here. I still need to lose weight, the boys are still fun and sweet (most of the time) and busy and funny. The dad/husband is still the most patient person I have ever met, kind, very slow to anger and the best dad/husband ever and we are looking forward to celebrating him this weekend. On to the book....

Chapter 9 is titled "The Coming Breakdown of the Petrodollar System" and I think I may have already written a little about this once before, as I was reading it, because I found it very interesting. I really want to get through the summaries of Chapters 9 and 10 though because the chapters after that are about the Federal Reserve and I found those REALLY interesting.

The "petrodollar system" is the result of a deal the U.S. made back in 1971 with OPEC, that all oil purchased by any country across the world must be purchased with U.S. dollars, which means that any country who wants to purchase oil must first exchange their money for U.S. dollars. My first thought was that this was quite a clever deal that was struck at a critical point in history.... that was when the U.S. government decided to move away from backing our currency with gold.

According to Robinson, in 1945 around 80 percent of the world's gold was in U.S. vaults (wouldn't it be interesting to know how much we have now??). By 1971 the U.S. was having major economic difficulties (Vietnam war and poor fiscal policies). They were spending much more than they took in and the other countries in the world were becoming concerned (much like today) and these countries started exchanging their dollar holdings for gold, which drove U.S. gold reserves to all-time lows. The U.S. was "bleeding gold" and it came down to two options: reduce the massive spending and debts, restoring confidence in the long run or "increase the dollar price of gold to accurately reflect the new economic realities. There was an inherent flaw in both of these options that made them unacceptable to the United States at the time -- they both required fiscal restraint and economic responsibility. Then, as now, there was very little appetite for reducing consumption in the beleaguered name of "sacrifice" or "responsibility"."

In August of 1971, the U.S. "chose to maintain its reckless consumption and debt patterns by detaching the dollar from its convertibility into gold This made our currency a fiat currency, or floating currency. To quote the author again, "By "floating", economists mean that the currency is not attached, nor does it derive its value, from anything externally. Put simply, a "floating" currency is a currency that is not fixed in value. Like any commodity, the dollar could be affected by the market forces of supply and demand. When the dollar became a floating currency, the rest of the world's currencies, which had been previously fixed to the dollar, suddenly became floating currencies as well." The author goes on to note that this is also what has allowed speculators and hedge funds to manipulate the floating currencies.

Now that our dollar was not attached to the gold standard, the Fed could print more whenever they wanted but our government also had to be concerned about the demand for our dollar. Since the dollar was no longer convertible into gold, the demand for it could end up falling.

The author makes the point (much better than I can) that, instead of our government taking the steps necessary to put their fiscal house in order, they were looking for a way "to maintain its position of economic dominance on the global stage." Robinson describes how all of this came about in much more detail than I will cover here. I think I am hitting the highlights though.

I found this very interesting: "The petrodollar system has proven very beneficial to the U.S. economy. In essence, America receives a double loan out of every oil transaction. First, oil consumers are required to purchase oil in U.S. dollars. Second, the excess profits from the oil-producing nations are transferred to U.S. government debt securities. This arrangement provides two large benefits to the United States. It increases global demand for U.S. dollars and for U.S. debt securities. Additionally, having oil priced in dollars means that the United States can print money to buy oil and then have the oil producers hold their debt that was created by printing the money in the first place. What other nation, besides America, can print money to buy oil and then have the oil producers hold the debt for the printed money?

So this has been a great thing for the U.S. over the years. The result is that it has created an artificial demand for our dollars and as the demand for oil as increased over the years, this artificial demand for the dollar has also increased. So, here is the bad news.

"The increased demand for the U.S. dollar provided by the petrodollar system means that the Federal Reserve must keep the dollar in a plentiful supply. This means that the U.S. dollar must be printed regularly. More money in circulation leads to an expansion of the monetary base. And a larger monetary base typically means a higher standard of living --- assuming that the demand for the currency and for the debt securities remains strong. This last point is extremely important. For if the petrodollar system were ever to crumble, America would be stuck with a whole lot of extra U.S. dollars that would no longer be in demand. Those dollars would then naturally find their way back to America, which would ultimately lead to massive inflation."

The author then goes on to discuss whether or not the petrodollar system in endangered. Some key points: "In America today we are living proof that having the world's most important currency translates into a higher standard of living than most nations. At one point in America's history, our nation's largest export was a variety of consumer goods. Today, America's largest export is the U.S. dollar." "How long before the nations of the world figure out the dollar fiasco is a fraud? Instead of viewing U.S. dollars as worthless paper backed by nothing (as they should), foreign oil producers and consumers were convinced -- and required -- to hold U.S. dollars in order to purchase oil. However, this demand is not genuine. It is purely artificial, and over the next several years, it will become obvious to all that it is unsustainable."

Based on the world news I have read, there are already countries who are pushing for changes to this system.

The author uses the rest of the chapter to discuss "petrodollar warfare", specifically about the war in Iraq. He quotes two other authors who say this war was started because Saddam made a decision in 2002 to refuse to sell its oil in dollars, he was switching to Euros. The author notes, "It is interesting to note that within weeks of the invasion of Iraq, all Iraqi oil sales were switched from the Euro -- back to the U.S. dollar. The author basically provides a case that the war could have been all about the U.S. trying to save the petrodollar system, it is difficult to know for sure but there are a lot of suspicious things that line up in that direction.

Robinson finishes the chapter with a discussion of the move from petrodollars to petroeuros. He predicts there will be a shift away from the petrodollar system towards either a basket of currencies or the euro and he states, "Based upon recent events, the new currency of choice for many oil-producing nations is the euro."

Iran has already moved away from the dollar to the euro and some yen. The author speculates that the U.S.'s questioning of Iran's nuclear program started after this happened, which is also what happened in Iraq. I thought he built a fairly good case for Iraq but have a hard time believing this about Iraq, because they are pretty vocal about wanting to have their nuclear capability and also wanting to take out Israel.

North Korea also decided to move away from the dollar for oil purchases in 2002 and Venezuela is working on doing it now too, in addition to leading the effort to move all OPEC nations off the dollar system to the euro. Robinson says that, as of 2008, OPEC is seriously considering it.

That's it for chapter 9. Chapter 10 is titled: "The Future of Oil and the End of Dollar Hegemony". I'll cover that one as soon as possible and then it will be on to the Federal Reserve chapters.

Goodnight!

To little time

First of all, I must apologize for not finishing up the book chapters in a timely fashion. I do intend to do this, I have just been temporarily side tracked for a short time. I actually have the book sitting next to me right now and had intended to write a chapter summary this evening but time has slipped by to quickly on me. The problem is that I am reading a novel right now so it is taking some of my free time, which I have very little of to begin with:). I will finish it soon and get back to it.

Today was dentist day. The boys had their six month check up today and it went exceptionally well. They both handled it like champs. When their names were called, N looked at me and said he wanted me to go in with him but then the lady and I both said something about him being a big boy or something or another. Both boys marched right in with no problem at all after that. I sat in the waiting room, praying for the boys, reading a book and praying some more. I was hoping and praying they would have have a good experience. At one point I heard a child crying/whining so I looked through the window but it was another child. My two were each lying in their chair with mouth open, like model patients. After B had his cleaning, he thought they were finished so he came out to see me. Soon after the lady came out and told him the dentist still needed to look at his teeth. I think he was a bit confused. I should have explained that ahead of time. I normally try to remember to set their expectations before we do something new or something we don't do often and I try to describe what will happen in great detail, as I have seen that it seems to really help them and they know better how to behave and what to expect. Anyway, he followed her back in with no complaints. They both had good reports and they were both proud of themselves for being such big boys.

After the dentist, we went out for a bite to eat, kind of as a reward, and they had some playtime at McD's. Then we headed off to find this physical therapy place because I needed to buy another piece of this hard foam stuff to use in my physical therapy torture treatment.

We came home and we all had a nap. I really needed one too as I heard B cry out around 2:30am. He went right back to sleep but he woke up N, who then cried out but then got quiet. So I thought they were both sleeping and then N showed up in our room so I held him for a little while, contemplating whether or not we would be able to sleep with him in our bed, knowing we would not (especially me) but so tired I really did not want to make the trip back upstairs with him. I eventually made myself get up and took him back upstairs. He was perfectly fine with it, although wanted his pull up changed before going back to bed. Before I left the room, he told me that I am his best friend, something he is telling me a lot lately and it warms my heart every time. He also blew me a kiss as I was leaving and I did not realize it so he called me back to do it again and then he was a happy camper.

It is funny that we still sit with the boys until they fall asleep but, if one of them wakes up during the night (pretty much always N, although it happens very seldom) he is fine with me leaving and going back to bed while he goes to sleep by himself. I am always very thankful for that.

After nap, the boys watched a movie and then wanted to go outside and play. They are having a ball this summer in their little swimming pool, the sandbox and also their climbing jungle gym thingy. The dad and I were watching them climb and hang from that thing today and we were amazed at how much upper body strength they have now. They are just growing like crazy.

I have been taking some pictures but the reason I have not posted any lately is because I do not have the right software on my new laptop and I keep forgetting to load it. I'm not even sure where to find it because the husband normally takes things of all things electronic around here. Hopefully we can get it loaded soon.

Saturday night we took the boys to dad's work function, a graduation dinner for the residents. This was not on purpose. The husband and I did not communicate well about it and so we ended up not having a baby sitter that night (oops). But, in the end, I was really glad because it worked out really well, the boys had a nice evening and were very well behaved and we didn't have to spend the extra money for a babysitter (we can spend it on a date night instead:). This was one of those times that I spent some time explaining to them what was going to happen at this event and what it would be like and how they should behave and I also made sure they took a good nap earlier that day. We all enjoyed it and they got to see daddy get up in front of everyone and speak and they enjoyed that. They were wonderful and I was happy to have them with us. Isn't that cool?

Here is something kind of funny that I want to document. B saw me cleaning the cat box this morning and said that when he is big, he wants to do that too. I may have to book mark this page and file it in a special folder so I will be sure to remember it when he gets big:).

This has been something that B has been saying a lot lately..."when I get big" or "when me get big". He has lots of plans and I need to start writing them all down so I can document them. At dinner tonight, they were both telling us, "So, I went to work today." After that, according to the script, we are suppose to ask what they did at work that day and they end up telling us how many patients they saw that day. The other day, B said he was going to be a doctor like daddy when he gets big and N said he was going to be a fireman.

Yesterday the boys and I did something special together for Father's Day but I can't tell what we did until after Father 's Day in case said Father happens to read:).

We are staying very busy and spending a lot of time playing outside. The boys are at a great age and I really have no complaints. Are they perfect? Of course not...but then again, neither am I:). Overall, their behavior is pretty good these days and we are getting to do some extra things here and there because I have some extra spending money (the money I earned from the garage sale:).

We are having a fun summer. Hope you are too!

Chapter 8 - Peak Oil

In this chapter, Robinson starts out by providing a bit of world history around energy sources. Although the information he provides is interesting, I'm not going to go into detail on this here.

Robinson provides a definition of peak oil, which is basically when the easily extractable oil has be extracted and the oil that is left costs more to extract than it is worth. In the author's words, "when energy extracted from the ground begins to require more energy than can be produced by the extraction, this is referred to as peak oil.

He goes on to say that the issue is not a lack of oil and that the earth will likely never run out of oil. The issue is that we will run out of cheap oil and, actually, the "peak oil theory" says that our world is already running out of cheap oil supplies.

Robinson spends the remainder of the chapter on discussing peak oil vs cheap oil in a question and answer format.

The first question is regarding proof about the peak oil theory. In the answer, the author discusses Marion King Hubbert, an American geophysicist and Shell Oil employee in the 1950's and also the one to first advance the peak oil theory. Hubbert gave a famous speech in which he described the three phases that energy production moves through. In 1956, Hubbert predicted that America's oil production would peak sometime between 1965 and 1971. Robinson provides the data to show that our oil production did indeed peak in 1970.

The next question is how are we still increasing our oil consumption if our production peak in 1970. The answer is we get it from foreign countries, which I think everyone already knows. This is interesting though: "in 1970 we imported only 24 percent of our oil from foreign nations. Today, that number has increased to 70 percent. And it is growing. In fact, each and every day America consumes around 25 percent of the world's available oil production. That's about 21 million barrels a day! What makes this number even more staggering is that America only makes up 5 percent of the global population. Never before in history has one nation been as dependent on foreign nations for its own supply of energy as America is today."

The next question is does the government have a plan? The answer, which I think we all know, is no.

Next question: don't we (America) still have some large, untapped oil reserves here and won't we be fine with that? He goes into a little more detail but the answer is no.

Next question: so our oil has peaked but what about the rest of the world? Robinson quotes an in-depth report commissioned and sponsored by the U.S. Dept. of Energy and released in 2005 (Peaking of World Oil Production: Impact, Mitigation and Risk Management, also known as the Hirsch Report). Significant points made from this report by Robinson are that the world's oil supplies will peak and already have in 33 of the world's 48 largest oil-producing countries, we will likely have less than 1 year's warning when global peak happens, it is estimated to happen sometime between now and 2040, we will be greatly impacted since we are so highly dependent on cheap oil.

The days of easy oil are over is the message of this chapter.

Very Tired

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. We have been very busy and I am very tired. Glad tomorrow is Friday. I will start posting again soon. Thanks for your patience.

A couple of cute things, so I don't forget. We were driving the hour and a half to my mom's house yesterday. The boys were listening to their music. N was singing, as usual, and then he said, "Come on B, sing with me!".

They have been very into the Veggie Tales scene these days (thanks again Karen!) and my nephew also gave them two Veggie Tale music CD's yesterday. They were listening to one of the CD's this morning. I put it on at their request and then headed to the bedroom to make my bed. I came back to find they had pulled out chairs from the kitchen table (the CD player is on the kitchen counter) and were sitting there, enjoying their music, while playing with a toy. It was very cute. Later, long after the music had been turned off, I heard N singing about carrots, tomatoes and celery as he was walking through the kitchen.

Oh the cuteness. They are so sweet (most of the time:).

Correction: Worth Reading

My apologies to anyone who went to the link I had listed and read today (Tuesday's) post. I should have copied the direct links to the two posts I was recommending, as opposed to the general link that takes you to the most recent post. I have correct the links below.

There are two posts for Monday, June 8th that are worth the read.

Forewarned is forearmed:

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1097-How-Much-BS-Can-You-Take.html

http://market-ticker.denninger.net/archives/1091-Ten-Things-You-Must-Do.html

Chapter 7 - Inflation Continued

I have learned a lot about the Federal Reserve in this book, although he covered it lightly and has another book out specifically on that (just shows how little I knew about it to begin with:).

If the public is not interested in buying enough of America's debt at any given time, the Federal Reserve is obligated to step up and purchase the debt. They are the lender of last resort of America's debt so "the U.S. government always has a buyer for its debt". When Robinson wrote his book, the Federal Reserve was holding approximately 45% of the $9 trillion national debt.

So, how does the Fed do this? How can the Fed afford to do this? To quote Robinson, "Quite simply, the Federal Reserve creates the money out of thin air". What do that mean? They print it. They just print more money. Can you believe that? Wow. What if we ran our personal finances that way....oh, I forgot, that would be illegal:).

Robinson points out, "It is the beauty of the fiat currency system. When times get tough, you can always print more money!" He goes on to point out again that, when the government prints more money, it devalues our currency.

Currently, we are not having to print as much money, since we are still able to borrow from foreign countries. We owe foreign countries approximately 25% of our $9 trillion debt. And I thought this was interesting: "According to a June 2007 official report issued by the Federal Reserve, the total amount of all U.S. dollars in circulation is equal to $755 billion. This means that America owes foreign creditors nearly three times the total amount of U.S. currency in circulation!" That was another eye opener for me. Also "Today our economy is subsidized by foreign capital inflows to the tune of 470 billion a month.

Unfortunately for us, these foreign countries that are supporting our debt addiction are beginning to question whether or not our debt is good. I have read in the news several times lately that our AAA rating is in jeapordy. I believe I also read that the U.K. had recently lost their AAA rating. For those of you who are not sure what this means, this rating tells potential buyers of our debt how much risk is associated with it. Foreign countries who believe there is a risk they won't be paid back will not buy our debt.

Robinson included this interesting bit of information: "According to a report issued by the U.S. Treasury, $163 billion of foreign capital reportedly flowed out of all forms of U.S. investments in just one month during the summer of 2007. According to the detailed report released by the London Telegraph newspaper (Oct. 18, 2007), "Asian investors dumped $52 billion worth of U.S. Treasury bonds alone, led by Japan ($23bn), China($14.2bn), and Taiwan($5bn)." This major sell-off marked the first time that foreigners had collectively sold more U.S. treasuries than they had purchased since 1998. The Telegraph report added: "Central banks in Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, and Vietnam have all begun to cut purchases of U.S. bonds or signaled an intent to do so".

Robinson goes on to say, "The idea that America can forever spend and borrow its way to prosperity is a delusion that is promoted by the government and the media. It is a lie and its effects are going to harm many unsuspecting Americans who continue to believe the deception."

As we all know from watching the news, our government continues to borrow and spend, while going deeper and deeper into debt. Robinson says that the result of this will be more concerns from those who buy our debt and the end result will be that they will stop buying our debt. And then what will happen? If our government keeps moving in the direction it is currently going, they will simply turn to the Federal Reserve, who will simply print more money, which will continue to devalue the dollar, which will lead to massive inflation. That is the gist of the end of this chapter.

Robinson adds: "the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) has project that by the year 2040, the entire U.S. federal budget will be spent on paying for its promised entitlements. This means that no money will be left over to pay for public education, national defense, and homeland security, or anything else for that matter."

I would hope that our government leaders would takes steps to fix some of these problems before it gets to this point, although it sounds as if their options are becoming fewer and fewer as time goes by.

And finally: "The ugly truth that no one is telling you is that America is preparing to enter the greatest financial crisis in world history. To be forewarned is to be forearmed."

In the next section of the book, Robinson addresses the energy crisis that our country faces. I will start on this section the next time I post.

In other news, the boys are doing great and are having a lot of fun playing outside this summer. We have spent so much time outside, working in the yard and just having fun that they were actually pretty happy to spend the majority of their day inside today.

Yesterday the dad and I took the boys to the local public swimming pool. They have a nice size kiddie pool fenced in separately and we spent most of our time there. The boys had a ball and loved climbing out and jumping in. It was good for just helping them become a little more at ease in the water.

B is still a bit scared of being in the water (he still vividly remembers his horrifying mishap last summer:(. It is interesting because when N accidentally falls so that his face is partially in the water, he is more upset about water getting in his eyes. When B falls like that, he ends up taking a huge gulp of water and he chokes and gags terribly. This happened twice yesterday and it makes it so that he tries very hard to avoid doing anything where he might accidentally get his face wet.

I am considering having them take swimming lessons. I need to spend some time in prayer over this before making a decision. I think B would really not like it at all, but I wonder if it might do him some good. I keep telling him that, if he knew how to hold his breath before going under water, he would not get choked or swallow water. He wavers on whether he thinks he would like to take swimming lesson. When we last spoke about it, after swimming yesterday, he said he did not want to take lessons. N says he wants to but then he does not want to do it without B.

Today we hung out at home. We had a workman doing some work upstairs so we had to be home. The boys wanted to paint today so that's what we did. We stayed busy with that for quite a while. After cleaning up, we had lunch and then we played with letters, letter sounds and blending letters. The boys are really doing surprisingly well with it. I'm sure if I made an effort to spend time on this every day, they would be reading fairly quickly. However, we really enjoy reading a lot and it is summer so we are just taking it easy and having fun playing a lot.

The boys are really enjoying the Frog and Toad books and also a couple of the Frances books. I stopped by the used book store and found a couple of the Frog and Toad books and another Frances book on Saturday. The boys are always so excited when I bring home books for them and they want to read them right away. I also found the Trumpet of the Swan book for $1 so I bought it so I could finish the story:). It was such a good book. I love getting to read so many of the books that I missed as a child. I know that, if it wasn't for the boys, this is not something I would have done. It makes for a great opportunity and I am so looking forward to reading so many good books together.

I'm going to catch up on some reading now. Hope you had a nice weekend. We did:).

Chapter 7 - Inflation

In his book, Bankruptcy of our Nation, Jerry Robinson starts chapter 7 with a "time is money" illustration to help us grasp how big is our country's national debt of approximately $59 trillion.

1 million seconds = approx. 12 days
59 million seconds = 708 days
59 billion seconds = 1,870 years
59 trillion seconds = 1,888,000 years (almost 1.9 million years)

That helps to see how much moving from millions to billions to trillions changes an amount, now doesn't it?

Of course, our national debt continues to grow astronomically, not only due to continued spending but also due to compound interest. A fact from Robinson's book: "Every 13 hours our government spends over $600 million on INTEREST on the national debt." So, I'm not sure how big it is now but I am fairly confident that it is quite a bit larger than it was when Robinson wrote his book, which was printed in March of 2009.

Robinson then summarizes the social security and medicare crisis that is facing our country and goes on to say that two answers to this problem are cutting benefits and increasing taxes. "Both of these are easier said then done. This is because our current generation is notoriously for its intolerance for any -- and all -- types of economic pain."

Robinson goes on to note a third solution that our government will likely turn to first, which is more borrowing. He points out that by looking at our national debt and also the combined debt of our citizens, it is clear this is the path both have all turned to when faced with financial challenges.

Then he discusses each of the three options one at a time:

Increase Taxes: We are an entitlement generation who likes to keep our paychecks so we most often vote for those politicians who promise not to raise our taxes.
Cut Spending and Benefits: We are an entitlement generation who continues to demand more and more benefits, not less. Politicians know this and tend to stay away from talk about cutting benefits; those who suggest this generally don't last long and they all know this. "...any suggestions to cut spending for entitlements will be met by a formidable boomer voting bloc." ("boomer", meaning baby boomer).
Continue Borrowing: Robinson says, "Creating debt is what Americans do best. Why would it apply any other logic to the looming entitlement crisis?"

In the last section of this chapter, Robinson explains why he believes inflation is coming.

Robinson explains, "One of the most important functions of the Federal Reserve is its role as the "lender of last resort" to the federal government. What this means is the U.S. government always has a buyer for its debt. This is because the Federal Reserve is obligated to step in and buy government debt when public interest in that debt wanes. As of this writing, the Federal Reserve holds approximately 45 percent of the $9 trillion national debt."


Chapter 7 - to be continued. Sorry but it is getting late, I'm tired, and the rest of this chapter requires a bit more thinking then I am capable of at this moment;).

Check it out

Amy's Humble Musings has a good post about the state of our country from a Russian's perspective. If you have time, check it out.

Chapter 6 - Social Security & Medicare Crisis

Continuation of my summarization by chapter of the book Bankruptcy of our Nation by Jerry Robinson.

So, we hear in the news all the time how quickly our national debt is growing. I'm not sure what it is now but Robinson says it was $9.4 trillion when he was writing his book at the end of 2008. Keep this in mind while we discuss the upcoming Social Security and Medicare crisis.

Do you remember getting your Social Security Statement every year, sometime before or around your birthday, indicating how much you have paid in to Social Security so far and estimating how much you will receive each year upon your retirement?

Well, first of all, the bad news is that there is no "Social Security Fund" out there where all of the money everyone is paying in is being stored and invested in their names. The money that is being paid in each week/month is being used to pay for those who are currently retired. If there is any money left over, our government spends it on something else. I'm sure I already knew this. I think I have heard this many times before during all of the discussions around fixing Social Security. Even so, it does not make me feel good to hear it again and to face the reality of what is coming for millions of unsuspecting Americans who have paid into this "fund" all their lives and are depending on it for their retirement.

First, let's tie this back to our national debt. In case you had not noticed, the national debt numbers everyone is always throwing around does not include the money that we (baby boomers who have yet to retire) have paid into Social Security, which our government used in a very irresponsible way, such that the money I paid in ( and you paid in) will not be there for us when we are ready to retire. When calculating the country's national debt, our government does not include this money that we earned, that is owed to us and that we will likely never see. (To quote Robinson, "According to the federal government's methods of accounting, promised unfunded liabilities to future citizens are not required to be included in the accounting process." Maybe that was worded incorrectly because I am pretty sure I am a current citizen, not a future citizen. Also, it is only an unfunded liability because they took the money that we paid in for our own retirement and used it for something else. In other circles, that might actually be called stealing.) In his book, Robinson quotes the total national debt, including the funds owed to us, to be closer to nearly $60 trillion, "a staggering sum that is about as large as the total household net worth of the entire United States". That's almost $200,000 for each and every citizen in the United States.

Baby boomers are those of us who were born between 1946 and 1964. I'm right there towards the end of that range:). There are approximately 80 million of us.

Here is an interesting fact. Did you know that Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid make up approximately 40% of our federal government's budget?

And now for the really bad news:
" When the U.S. Congress passed the Social Security Act in 1935 as a part of the New Deal, an estimated 42 workers paid into the system for every retiree. By 1950, this ratio had decreased to 16.5 workers for every retiree. by the year 2030, the ratio will drop to a dismal two workers for every retiree.
Today, around 50 million U.S. citizens draw a monthly Social Security check. That number will increase dramatically to an estimated 84 million by the year 2030. Today, there are 44 million Medicare recipients. But in 2030, that number will nearly double to 79 million. And by 2040, the entire entitlement system will be in a state of disrepair unless something is done quickly."

Robinson actually provides the case for Social Security going under in 2040 but Medicare will be going under by the year 2018. He also states, from the Social Security Board of Trustees' 2006 annual report, that the money coming in from Social Security will be less than the money going out by the year 2017.

Our government has no solutions for how to solve this problem and each administration so far has simply kicked the can down the road. He then goes on to say, "To make matters worse, many in the government, and in the media, are proposing that we should solve this problem with more spending. The logic goes something like this: by spending more money, we can grow our economic productivity and outputs to levels that will help us pay off our massive debts. Anyone who thinks that the solution to a massive debt crisis is to go more into debt is massively deceived. Consuming more and saving less will only aggravate our current problems and delay the inevitable pain that awaits us." (emphasis his)

I heard on the news today that our government has increased the national debt more in the past six months than had been done in the entire 30 years before that.

Here is my spin on this. Don't count on having any retirement from the government. Also, remember that any money saved in a 401K or IRA account are controlled by the government. Remember that our government is going to be desperate when they are up against a wall on this and they have to come up with something. I have read in many places that the most logical way for the government to come up with some of the money they will need is to take it from our 401K and IRA funds. Robinson discusses this at the end of his book and says it would likely happen through a heavy tax, such as a 40% tax, on those funds as we take them out. He suggests that we make sure our retirement funds are diversifiedt and that we are saving money (at least 15%) outside of these retirement savings vehicles too. We'll cover his suggestions in more detail later.

There are so many things happening these days that I thought I would never see our country do that, quite frankly, at this point I would not be surprised if our government decided to "nationalize" our 401K and IRA retirement accounts. Moral of the story: be responsible; save, save, save; be prepared.

That's it for chapter 6. I'll try to do chapter 7 tomorrow. Goodnight:).

Funny kids

So today the boys both slept in until almost 8:00. I ended up going upstairs with the intent to wake them up but they were just waking up when I entered their room. Needless to say (but I'll say it:) we were all in a much better mood this morning than we were yesterday morning.

Today we went to the library for story time for the first time. We arrived just as they were starting and the boys didn't quite know what to think. I should have explained it to them a little better I suppose so they would have know more what to expect. They are normally such talkers and singers however they were very quiet during story time, even during the singing parts. They seems to enjoy, although they were easily distracted by the other kids. We ended up checking out three more audio books and we have to make a trip to the farm next week so we will have a great opportunity to listen to one of them then. We started one today as we left the library and headed to McDonalds (or Old McDonalds, as the boys say, even though I have explained to them many times that it is just McDonalds).

We were looking forward to lunch and some play time at McD's but it was extra packed because it is a rainy day here today and, of course, school is out for the summer. We ate our lunch and then went into the play area and we were only there maybe 5 or 10 minutes when the boys decided they wanted to leave. They didn't like it with so many kids (and I didn't like the noise level). So we headed home and we are now having some quiet time.

New topic: I have many yellow day lillies in the flower beds in the front yard (too many actually). They always look beautiful when they first bloom, after the spring rains and this lasts for a month or so. And then, they start doing this funny thing where the buds become round and they dry up and fall off, instead of becoming elongated and then blooming. If anyone knows why this happens and how to prevent it, I would really love to know. I am getting ready to search the Internet to see if I can find out why but I may have to take a couple of round buds over to a nearby nursery and see if they know.

The boys have gotten very good about our quiet time. We normally do 45 minutes of quiet time a day now, if they don't need a nap, which they normally do not these days. It is a very pleasant time. N is very good about getting a huge pile of books and looking through them, pouring over each picture. B tends to get 2 or 3 books and quickly becomes bored with them, after which he sprawls around on the couch, moving in this direction and that, all the while whispering to himself as he pretends something or other. it is very funny to watch and I can hear him whispering now, even though he is on the couch in the other room.

We have been doing lots of work to fix up our house lately. We hired someone to repair several window sills and then to put some sort of stuff over all of them so they won't do that again. We also hired someone to repairs the columns in front of our house, including the one holding our mailbox. They have stucco stuff on the ourside of them and the two beside our driveway and the one that holds the mailbox had all been hit by car mirrors or bumpers at some time or another (not ours:). Also, our friendly wood pecker had returned to put more holes in our chimney so we hired someone to repairs the columns and the chimney. And then the husband just finished repainting our shutters and restaining our fence. The outside is looking very nice now, although I am considering planting a couple more things in the front flower beds to add a bit more curb appeal. The inside needs a bit of work, such as touch up paint on the cabinets and revarnish of the floors (in hindsight, trikes in the house may have not been such a grand idea:).

We were considering selling our house and buying something a bit smaller, newer and much more energy efficient. However, we spoke at length with a local builder on the weekend and, after thinking about it and discussing it, we are thinking we might be better off staying where we are. Our motivation for moving was to lower our energy costs however, after hearing the cost of a lot and building a new house, we are not so sure. We were thinking that this house is bigger than we really need and we have concerns that the cost of energy is going to go up quite a bit over the future. Our current house is a four bedroom and is around 3,800 square feet and the husband was thinking that a four bedroom house around 2,500 square feet would do nicely. (He had a house that size when he lived in Tucson.) The only thing is that the house he had in Tucson (which I have seen and it is very nice) did not have a game room, which all four bedroom homes have around here and it is expected (if we built one without, the resale value may be bad). His Tucson house was also all on one level, which is also very hard to find here, as it cost a lot more to build one that way. So, we are now rethinking our plan and who knows where we will go from here. Until then, we will enjoy and appreciate the nice home that we are in.

Well, not much more going on around here today. Karen, I will continue with my summary of the book chapters. The husband and I take turns putting the boys down for bed so I will do the updates when it is his turn. I think tonight is my turn so it will likey be tomorrow night before I will start again. I think it is a great book though so I am happy to continue. Have a great day!

Economic Predictions

I have been following this web site for a short while now and am learning a lot. This guy really seems to know his stuff. He wrote this post in Dec. 2008. In it he scores his predictions for 2008 and he also provides predictions for 2009. Much of it is financial jargon and is above my head, although I am still able to get the gist of what he is predicting. Most of what he says also fits in with the book I have been reading, which I started blogging about but have not finished. I have been busy with other things and was not sure anyone really cared. If you are interested in hearing more about the book, let me know. If there is enough interest, I might start posting about it again.

Here is the link:
http://market-ticker.org/archives/689-Where-We-Are,-Where-Were-Heading-2009.html

Behavior and sleep

Boys who wake up at 6:15 am are not very pleasant to be around by 12:15 pm. I am not sure why they woke up so early but I pray this does not become a habit. Time for naps.

Tuesday Update

Our garage sale went very well. One lady even said it was the most organized garage sale she had ever seen:). We ended up making $427 and sold most of the items. We took the remaining items to the local Good Will office.

It was a lot of work and we ended up not getting to bed the night before until around 11:30. The husband went to sleep right away, as usual, and while I was getting ready to fall asleep I heard a loud thump on the upstairs floor and then heard N on the monitor crying and calling to me. I rushed up and he had blood running from his nose. Poor little guy. What a rude awakening, to hit the floor with your nose and then have blood running all over you. I cleaned him up and stayed with him until he was almost back to sleep so it was pretty late when I got to bed. Thankfully, the husband is naturally an early riser so he was up early and moved a bunch of toys and the lawn mower and a couple of other things out of the garage and into the back yard.

I forgot to put the time and date in the paper so we had one guy knocking on our door, asking if this was where the garage sale was, early Friday morning and we had several people show up between 7:00 and 8:00 on Saturday (we were planning to start at 8:00 on Sat.). But the dear husband took care of them while I fed the boys and got ready and I was out there and ready by 8:00am as planned. I think we finally called it a day around 2:00 or 2:30. As the time went by, I started slashing prices all over the place because I didn't want to be left with all of this stuff. Overall, I was very pleased with how much stuff we sold and the husband was pleasantly surprised. He was actually very surprised at how much stuff we had to sell. Both he and my sister were thinking we did not have that much stuff to get rid of. I think my favorite part was going through all of the cabinets, drawers and closets gathering stuff up that we had stored for years and had never used. That felt really good and it feels really good to now have all of that stuff gone.

Most of the time the dad was working on painting our fence while I was manning the garage sale and the boys were either hanging out with me, eating snacks, or playing in the yard or on the driveway. I ended up getting some of their riding toys out and put them in the grass next to the driveway so they could ride them on the driveway if they wanted. So almost everyone who walked up asked if they were for sale. In hindsight, I should have put up a sign indicating they were not for sale.

The boys did very well over all but poor little B cried several times because he wanted me to push him on the swing and I couldn't. Other than that, they did pretty well and had a fun day, although a tiring one (for all of us). After we dropped off the items at Good Will, we went out to eat a late lunch.

Well, both boys are sitting in chairs in the living room, looking through their books. I think that is a sign they would like someone to read to them and I am that someone so I must sign off for now. Ta Ta! :).